if you're talking about cutting edge CRTs, many of the last generation actually beat flat panels for years. Some may still in some aspects. There were plenty o

if you're talking about cutting edge CRTs, many of the last generation actually beat flat panels for years. Some may still in some aspects. There were plenty of junk CRTs out there used for text only display with insane levels of persistence and other issues that lead to a very unique appearance. It's also sort of moot at this point. The existing CRTs out there that have this behavior have degraded over the years. No one makes new high persistence CRTs that I am aware of. So it's mostly down to our memory of them. I actually have a flat panel that has over 2 decades degraded and now has some weird persistence going on.