Samsung Electronics on Friday posted a strong fourth-quarter profit estimate despite a fiasco with its flagship smartphone.

The world's largest memory chip maker estimated its operating profit in the October-December period at 9.2 trillion won ($7.8 billion), up 49.8 percent from a year earlier.

Analysts predicted large sales of memory chips and smartphone screens would contribute to a strong surge in the company's earnings growth despite a global recall of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.