But, is there a way to search without the remote? I was really hoping to search using the unit's front panel.

Yes, you can search by scrolling through the playlists. This is not an "alphanumeric search" but it's a search. If your playlists don't happen to be arranged by artist and album, it's not my fault.

In the future, the "Soup" views (also in the FAQ) will be implemented on the player's front panel and those will allow you to scroll through by artist, album, track name, year, and genre.