GeForce GTX 280M is the second most powerful GPU of the 200M Series released by NVIDIA in 2009/2010.
The biggest hindrance it has is the fact that it only supports DirectX up to 10 so DirectX 11 games aren't supported.
It uses the 'G92b' architecture, similar to the one 9800M GTX has but was manufactured at 55nm, instead of 65nm. It also features extra Pipelines as well as increases core frequencies so the performance is much better but still nothing like its desktop version - GeForce GTX 280. It's technically a slower GeForce GTX 285M.
Compared to powerful Mobile GPUS (e.g. GTX 485M, Radeon HD 6990M), GeForce GTX 280M is not far behind and it's capable of playing demanding games (like Crysis 2) at high settings. However, very demanding games like Metro 2033 can only be played at medium settings.