We had such a great time in Rio and our stay in in Philip’s apartment was very pleasant. To sum our experience up, I will go with pros and cons:

Pros:
The apartment was clean and well appointed, including a washing machine and laundry rack to hang dry clothes after washing, small ironing board and iron, power adapters for many common plugs, and a fully appointed kitchen with very nice glasses and plates… no plasticware.
The air conditioners are powerful enough to keep the place frigid, and the cable selection was good.
The decor is charming, including small antiqued photos of Rio and lifelike fake flowers.
The couch is on the smaller side, but functional for the space and pretty comfortable.
The bed is extremely comfortable and the bedding was nice.
The location is great, being directly across from the beach, with one larger restaurant and two smaller cafe-style restaurants located at either street's entrance. We felt very safe in the neighborhood the whole time. The apartment is also close to the nice bar and restaurant scene of Ipanema.
Philip was extremely helpful the whole time.

Cons:
The bedroom window is quite old and lets in a lot of sound. Being located on a busy street with 24-hour traffic, I would recommend ear plugs if you are a light sleeper.
The contact person in Rio, Lucia, showed up a little late, but it was totally ok.
There was no laundry detergent to go with the washing machine (which wasn’t a problem for us since we brought a small package of our own), and only one roll of toilet paper was supplied… leaving us shopping for what should probably be kept stocked.

We looked at numerous locations in our search for an apartment, and after staying here we agree we made a good choice! Thanks Philip!