Have a question about iPhones?

IPhones have always been expensive for the most part especially today 600$+ iPhones have been around 12 years just about has time just caught up and people r willing to pay several hundreds for a cell phone cause it replaces the need for simple tasks you would before use a laptop / desktop and that their as essential as your Wallet and keys? I iPhones are not the only smartphones but as far as why people are More willing to pay more now then the earlier yearsa 2007 to maybe 2012 is that cause it's just a norm and people aren't afraid cause before then you would have your flip phone and a lot of us knew cell phones to be cheap I had mine for 0$ mail and rebate but in general post 2007 a lot of people have flip phones under 100$.

How long will it take for a very dead iPhone 5 to charge?

Need to charge my iPhone 5 up, it's been dead for probably about 3 years sitting in the box.

I have had it plugged in for about 35-40 minutes and it was showing no sign of life, totally black screen.

I saw something online that said if I charge it for about 30 minutes and then hold the home and lock buttons down at the same time it should re-boot.

I did that and it didn't re-boot, but it did flash up the battery image showing a very little bit of red at the bottom of the battery.

Does this just mean it needs longer to charge, or is it just totally dead and there's no hope?

Added (1). I decided to just leave it charging and after about an hour it buzzed to life!