Short version: Nope... 😉
Long Version:
I see this pop up frequently in the bug tracker and slack where someone is complaining about a issue; then we all find out it is a issue in the @next version. Unfortunately Telerik really did everyone a huge disservice when they named it @next.
This is not actually the next version of that specific repo/codebase. What, you say??? But it is named next. Yes, I'm sorry to say it is totally a mis-named tag. None of the repos have an actualNEXT branch.
The @next tag is actually tied to the MASTER branch. And Master is not a RELEASE branch in NativeScript. Master is used for testing, and validating things. Once they have been validated and the feature(s), or fixes approved; then that single item will be tracked and eventually moved into the Release branch before the real next upgrade release.
In the meantime if you decide to try @next, you will have many features/bugs that are still in testing or transition that might not even be 100% complete or working properly. Now the Telerik devs have been trying really hard to keep the Master branch in a usable state (Kudos for the guys putting "DO NOT MERGE" on really major pull requests that are still being developed). But even with them being careful; Master is still a DEVELOPMENT branch, so just like my own DEVELOPMENT branches, thing will slip through. Or a design change will occur; where we decide to refactor something and then the current "master" is broken in some weird way that we didn't anticipate. In addition there will be many features/bugs that are present on Master that will never be in Release in that form. So, @next != release or really even release quality.
Please if you don't need to upgrade to @next; don't do it. Not only will you stay saner; you won't be wasting peoples time with issues that are frequently meaningless. @Next is really so that you can test if a bug is fixed; but be very leary of using it for ANY other reason, the rest of the non-release changes in @next will probably bite you...
However I would ask that if a bug you reported is fixed on @next; please upgrade temporarily to verify the bug is fixed, and report back to the team. This is helpful for them to know they squashed your bug as you see it. But once you are done,testing; I would highly recommend you go back to the @latest tag. 😉
To upgrade you do npm i tns-core-modules@next (Example sake; we are assuming it is the core you are upgrading, but all the repos have a @next). Then a tns platform clean android or ios. Then re-build and run the app. When you are done testing, change the @next to @latest, and you will get the latest RELEASE version available for that repo.