my dad was looking at a new car for himself when i got home from college (this past february was when he ended up buying)
we test drove the v4, v6 altimas, and v4, v6 camrys.
the altima looks cheap on the inside, the door handles on the outside aren't "finished" they're obviously finished, but the 2 parts of the door handle that come together has an edge. it's not sanded down, they're just stuck together, there's a plastic edge. The locked door thingy on the altima looks cheap. it looks like a large piece of hollow plastic with foil covering it.
that being said, the altima is a lot more fun to drive. The pick-up is good, even with the 4 cyllinder. Unfortunately, this means that the engine is tuned for acceleration, and it's way loud. My dad was driving a maxima that he ended up giving to me when he bought the new car. power from the altima seemed about the same (but then again i never really push the maxima for all of its power) but the volume seemed to be 10x that of the maxima at normal acceleration. If you enjoy the noise, it'll be a good buy. Otherwise, it'll probably end up annoying you. the 6 cyllinder is nice and quite, but the price tag goes up past your price range.
The camry, is a lot more "refined" it's also doesn't feel nearly as fast. but.... it's more comfortable and quiet, and has more room for passengers in the back, and is a LOT cheaper.
I'm not sure how things are where you live, but in LA, you can get a brand new camry LE for 15800 - 16000 before TTL. The altima, well, you never see an ad for them like that. They're advertised at the $2000 down $98 a month 2 year lease.
you shouldn't be trusting the people on this website to help you buy a car, go test drive both, figure out which you like best, and buy it. An alternative to the LE is the base model with everything except for a full sized spare and um, i forget what else. you can find it on the website, my aunt just bought one of those a couple weeks ago, ended up being about 1500 less.