What carrier do you have?
I have Sprint and just got the GS5 last night and I just got home from work so not much time playing with the phone yet.
I checked and my favorites is in a grid view at the moment but if I press the 3 dots on the top right (new menu) I see the option for List view.
The phone got an update right after activation, so I don't know how that feature worked before the update.
Sent From Inside The TARDIS With My Galaxy S5