Trying to decide on a new DSLR: Canon EOS Rebel T3i, Nikon D5100, or Nikon D3100?

I'm not intending to go professional, but I'm looking into making photography one of my hobbies; it's something I've always been interested in. They all seem like great cameras but I still can't really decide. Which ones would you suggest?

Depends on what your subject would be. If you'll be taking portraits of people, I'd say go for Canon. If you're into landscapes, objects, etc, I suggest Nikon. Nikon D5100, to be specific. It's better to buy a kind-of-good-camera because you don't get to buy a new one every time. So when time passes by, your camera won't be too old!

The Canon T3i and Nikon D5100 are the two which are in competition for the market share.

If you look at the performance of the sensors on those two cameras, you will see which is "best"

http://www.dxomark.com/...nd2)/Canon

Get a Pentax. Haha.
Ni con Canon ni con Nikon.

Decide if you want to do a lot of video as well. If so then the D3100 goes at the bottom of the list.
Handle them, see which one feels best and which makes it easiest to
- Change shutter speed
- change aperture
- change iso
- select an AF point
- select a metering method

Have you considered a more compact version that you can carry with you more often? Try googling micro four-thirds, Olympus has and entire line of them (PEN)

Either the T3i or the D5100.

Go to a store and handle both of them, see which one feels better to you. They are pretty equivalent.

Bought a week ago the D5100!

I was in the sam situation as you, wanting to be a photographer as a hobby to photograph our beautiful world or moments, rather than photographing to be a professional.

Forget the D3100, quite old.
When I compared, by hand, the Nikon d5100 and the Canon 600D (t3i) I liked the most the Nikon.

Go for the Nikon D5100!