A device for charging battery cells has conductive lines to be coupled to the battery cells, a charge control circuit coupled to the conductive lines to charge the battery cells, and to determine voltages of the battery cells, and switches to balance the voltages among the battery cells. In operation, the charge control circuit charges the battery cells while determining the voltages of the battery cells, and suspends from charging the battery cells before determining the voltages of the battery cells in a second stage.