It depends on the CVT, I have had several and they vary. Gearboxes vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, a good CVT is always better than bad, hesitant jerky conventional gearbox, some are notchy, some are smooth. You can’t generalise. You need to drive it to find out. There are different types of CVT, its not as simple as is portrayed. The following is a review online.
Some of the best CVT-type automatics we’ve sampled to date include cars from Honda (Jazz, City, CR-V, Civic, HR-V, Odyssey), Subaru (Forester, WRX), and Toyota (C-HR, Corolla Altis, Vios, Yaris).
The CVT-type automatic fitted to these cars offer smooth acceleration and a quiet operation, largely due to the implementation of a torque converter to send power to the driven wheels.