What do you consider “extremely short range”?
It is not uncommon to nearly have to touch the phone to get a read, depending on the phone. I can get about a 7mm with the dangerous things PN532 module. With my Red Hydrogen One phone I can get 1cm or more (best NFC range on a phone I’ve personally witnessed), but my S7 it’s only about 2mm even with the ideal orientation and position (using an xLED to find this the ideal position and orientation is super important to get consistent reads)