Strong sales at Samsung Electronics' latest Galaxy S23 smartphone helped staunch the massive deficit incurred by the tech giant as it posted an estimated 14-year low operating profit of 600 billion won in the first quarter.

While the company did not release the results of each business division on Friday, industry observers forecast that the Device Solution division overseeing the chip business likely posted a deficit of around four trillion won, its first financial loss in 14 years.

The world-leading memory chip and smartphone maker did, however, manage to stay in the black in terms of overall profit, despite an on-year drop of 96 percent, thanks largely to the improved performance in its Mobile eXperience(MX) unit.

An analyst at Hanwha Investment and Securities estimated Samsung to have sold eleven million models of the Galaxy S23 series in the first quarter, while also tentatively calculating that the MX unit's operating profit likely jumped 123 percent on-year.

A researcher at Hana Securities forecast a decline in profit in the second quarter, citing a limited improvement in the semiconductor division and a tapering influence of the S23 launch.