Samsung has just published its earnings for 2017's third quarter and the firm is reporting record profits driven primarily by its flagship smartphone ranges; that includes the Galaxy S8 series (including the Galaxy S8+) and the Galaxy Note 8 phablet.

A total of $13 billion operating profit for the quarter shows a huge growth of 179% on the same quarter in 2016 - a growth of some kind was somewhat inevitable considering how the Galaxy Note 7 "explosiongate" fiasco put a huge dent in Samsung's financials last year, but even so, this is a pretty staggering growth rate all the same; a record high, in fact, which Samsung attributes to high demand for its flagship category smartphones.

Last year's $42.75 billion revenue for the quarter was also bested to the tune of $55.48 billion, while net profit was also up significantly; the June-September quarter in 2016 came in at $4.05 billion but an 89% boost this year bumped things up to $10 billion.

Overall smartphone shipments increased during the quarter, which Samsung attributes to the Galaxy Note 8 launch, however, revenues for the firm's Mobile Communication and Network Businesses division dropped 18.9% on the previous year's figures for the same period. The reason? Samsung states it's down to a "higher sales portion of mid-to-low tier models". Samsung does predict that robust sales over the Christmas period will shore up its finances even further, however.