Microsoft Corp. today announced a new addition to the award-winning family of SideWinder gaming products, the SideWinder X3 Mouse, which combines gaming performance and versatile design at a value price of $39.95. This ambidextrous, eight-button gaming mouse delivers comfort for either hand along with the performance features fans of SideWinder products know and love, including a 2,000 dots-per-inch (dpi) laser-tracking engine with on-the-fly dpi switching between high, medium and low sensitivity. The SideWinder X3 Mouse is easy on the wallet, but it does not skimp on performance, offering gamers a full set of features and launching them ahead of the competition.

"Our research shows that in-game comfort continues to be the main consideration for PC gamers," said Bill Jukes, product marketing manager for Microsoft Hardware. "We designed this mouse to be ambidextrous and small in size, providing comfort to a wider variety of people and making it ideal for gaming as well as everyday use."Performance Gaming, Perfect Price

Like its siblings the SideWinder X5 Mouse and the original SideWinder Mouse, the SideWinder X3 Mouse has five programmable main buttons that are customizable to gamers' preferences and tested for extreme gaming, with the main button life rated to 10 million clicks. Additional features include these:

• IntelliPoint software to create and assign macros
• Wide, detented scroll wheel for more precise click movement
• Low-profile lateral side buttons for easy access during gaming and everyday computing
• Wide-glide feet for smooth handling and a light, balanced feel

Pricing and Availability
The SideWinder X3 Mouse will be widely available in May for an estimated retail price of $39.95 (U.S.). The mouse is available now for pre-sale on Amazon.com and will ship in May when it is released. More information about this and other Microsoft Hardware products can be found at www.microsoft.com/hardware.